


you can't lose me

by jadedsunshine



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Gen, focused on Trini and her parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 17:16:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12085647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadedsunshine/pseuds/jadedsunshine
Summary: After Rita's attack, Trini is practically on house arrest and desperate to spend time with her fellow Rangers. After another lecture, Trini's dad convinces her to talk to her mom (who's scared of losing her only daughter).





	you can't lose me

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over a month ago, thought I would share.
> 
> After re-reading it myself, I got this feeling that it may be OOC, but idk. 
> 
> Here goes... enjoy!

Trini slams her bedroom door, then crosses her arms and slides down with her back against it. She’s pretty sure she’s about to burst from the frustration bubbling up inside of her. She brings her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, and begins to massage her temples.

There’s a knock on the door and she groans, rolling her eyes. She doesn’t need another lecture from her mother right now. She just doesn’t.

“Trini, it’s dad, please let me in.” His voice is calm which helps her relax a bit. 

She stands and inhales deeply, exhaling before she grips the handle of the door. She pulls it open and her dad comes into view, she nods for him to come in and he kisses the top of her head as he steps inside.

“This isn't fair and you know it.” She tried to keep her cool, but she stumbled over her words causing her to shake her head. She walks over to take a seat on her bed, resting her elbows on her thighs and covers her face with her hands.

“I know, mijita, but you've got to cut her some slack.”

“Her? What about me?” She looks up at her dad with watery eyes.

“She’s just worried about you, Trini.” Her dad takes a seat beside her on the bed and wraps his arm around her shoulders. “I'll talk to her.”

“Dad, talking to her doesn't work anymore.” She knows, she's tried. She wasn't always so distant from her mom. “She believes everything tía Celia comes up with about me and it's not right. I’m her daughter! She’s supposed to be on my side.”

She doesn't realize she's crying until she feels her dad's palm on her cheek, his thumb softly wiping away the tears. “Ay, mi corazón. You can't keep bottling this all up inside of you.”

“I'm trying.” She says between sobs, clinging tightly to her dad’s shirt as she rests her cheek against his chest. The truth is that she has been trying to be more open and less of a ‘ghost’ around the house. She’s been working hard on communicating her feelings with her parents. “I hate that she's so mad at me. It's been months. And now with the attack, she's so much worse.”

“Trini, she loves you. She worries. You two used to be so close and ever since we moved to Angel Grove, you’ve been avoiding her. She feels like she's losing you, mija.” 

She pulls away from her father to look him in the eye. “I'm right here.” She considers her next words, trying hard to find the right ones. “I just needed space. This was our third move in three years, dad. I was happy in Texas and she ripped that away from me. Again.”

Satisfied with the fact that his daughter is opening up, even if it's just a little, Mark reaches out to hold her hands, squeezing them gently to encourage her to keep going.

“It's not easy to make friends, especially in high school. And here, everyone has history. Everyone knows each other. There wasn't a place for me.” Trini looks down at her hands in her father’s before she takes a deep breath and continues. “I tried getting to know as many kids as I could, but they didn’t even remember my name. I was just Didi to them, no one special. It made me angry. So, I found a place to hide and get away from it all. I promise you, I never did anything wrong. I'm not on drugs. I just needed space. I'd go out to this cliff to meditate. To collect myself before I had to came home and deal with another one of mom’s interrogations.” 

“Tri-” Her dad starts, but she cuts him off.

“Dad, let me finish. Please. I’m trying.” His expression softens as he nods.

“I know it took a year, but I found my people. I found friends who accept me for who I am, who are there for me, who care about me and mamí is keeping me from them.” She feels tears roll down her cheeks again, so she takes a moment to breathe. “I know the attack scared her. Trust me, I know. But dad, I need my friends right now. She can’t just keep me locked in this house.”

“Habla con ella.” Her dad says, running soothing circles on her back. “She needs to hear everything you just told me. Until you do, Trini, nothing is going to change.” 

“It’s not the same. You listen, she doesn’t.” 

Her dad shakes his head in disagreement. “Mi amor, she listens.”

Trini looks up to her father with a raised eyebrow. “Dad.”

“She does, mija. I promise. She just doesn’t know how to express herself, either. Not without losing it. Sound familiar?”

“Dad.” 

“You’re not that much different from her, Trinity. You're both so strong-willed and stubborn that it affects your relationship. I know you love her. She loves you, too. And that’s why you need to sit down with each other and talk this through.”

Trini closes her eyes, taking her dad’s words to heart. “What if she doesn’t want to talk.”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try. You opened up to me, do the same with her. Until then, she’s going to do whatever she can to keep you close. Entiendes?”

“Sí, papá.” Trini leans into her father’s chest again, hugging him tightly, then pulls back and kisses his cheek. “Gracias.”

“Of course, mi niña.” He stands and ruffles her hair, kissing her forehead. “Now, I’m taking the boys to the park. Your mom could really use your help with dinner.” He gives her a wink and walks out of her bedroom, closing the door behind him. 

Trini lays back on her bed dramatically, resting her forearm over her eyes.

\--

It takes Trini half an hour to gather up enough courage to head downstairs to the kitchen. She works her hair up into a messy bun and takes the steps two at a time. She heads straight to the kitchen sink, where she starts to wash her hands. 

She can feel her mother’s eyes on her as she rinses the soap off and she takes a deep breath. Reaching for the towel to dry her hands, she turns to face her mom with a small smile on her face. “Need some help?”

“Always,” June nods, flipping the knife in her hand and holding the handle out to Trini.

She begins to chop tomatoes for the pico de gallo as she watches her mom turn back to the stove to check on the flank steak. She’s scared, but she has to go for it. Before the courage she racked up in her bedroom slips away, she speaks up. “Mom, can we talk?”

There’s a pause and Trini hears the sizzle of the meat her mom had just flipped as the fear begins to flow through her veins again. Was she too direct? Then there’s the sound of the tongs being placed on the spoon rest, followed by her mom’s voice.

“What do you want to talk about, Trini?” Her mom reaches in front of her to grab the bowl of freshly chopped vegetables and starts to squeeze lime juice into it. 

“Uh… I thou-, um about me?” She hates that she can’t get the words out in a proper sentence, so she takes a deep breath and tries again. “I thought we could talk about me.”

June is honestly surprised and clutches onto the bowl she’s working with. “You want to talk about yourself?” 

Trini bites into her bottom lip and nods her head, sliding the chopped cilantro into the bowl in her mother’s grip. “Yeah, is that okay?” She asks as she places the knife down on the cutting board and wipes her hands on the towel she used before.

“Of course,” her mother responds as she stirs the pico de gallo and places the bowl in the fridge.

Trini watches as June goes back to the stove, turning off the flame, and moving the steak off of the grill pan and into the warming drawer to let it rest. There’s fear bubbling inside of her again and she’s trying to find the words, but they’re lost inside of her somewhere. Her mom must pick up on the hesitation because she walks over to the breakfast bar and sits on one of the stools, pulling out the one next to her for Trini.

“Come, sit. Let’s talk.”

This is it. She just has to swallow up all her fears and let it all out. It’s been two weeks since Rita’s attack, two weeks since her mother pretty much put her on house arrest for scaring her, two weeks since she’s seen any of her fellow rangers outside of them sneaking into her bedroom at two in the morning to check in on her.

Trini sits next to her mom, the courage building up again, and begins to spill her feelings. “Mamí,” she starts and a single tear rolls down her cheek. “I know you’re worried and scared, but I need you to listen to me. I need you to try to understand.” 

June looks into her daughter’s watering eyes and nods, knowing it’s not her turn to speak.

Trini starts to fidget with her fingernails and her leg bounces as she repeats everything she had told her dad earlier. Sharing where she was always disappearing to, why she was so angry. 

Surprisingly, her mother is actually listening and hasn’t interrupted her yet. When she finally stops to take a breath, June takes it as an opening to speak. “Trini, I don’t think you understand how afraid of losing you I was that day. We had no idea where you were at, you wouldn’t answer your phone, no one had seen you. It was a nightmare. I was so mad at you the night before, baby, I didn’t even kiss you goodnight. And then I felt like I was never going to see your beautiful face again. I thought you were going to leave this world thinking that I hated you.”

Trini’s chest tightens as she thinks about that night. It was the same night she confessed her feelings to the Rangers. She had snuck in past curfew, forcing her parents to go on their weekly shopping trip late. Her parents were in her room waiting for her to step through the window. She had been upset after they left, especially since Rita attacked her an hour later, but she never thought that her mother hated her. She feels her mother grip her hands in her own and she holds back a sob.

“I never thought that you hated me, mom. I know we don’t have the best relationship anymore, but I know that you love me. I know.” She chokes and looks up into her mother’s eyes.

“Where did you go that day, Trini? Where were you?” Trini quivers, the memories flooding her mind. She’s heard her mother ask the same questions at least 50 times over the last couple of weeks, but has never answered. She figured it was time.

“My friends needed me that day, mom. We were safe. We were okay. And mom, I need them now. I need to talk to them and spend time with them. They’re important. They’re like family and I need them.” She takes another deep breath. “Please, mom, please let me go be with them.”

June's eyes go wide, “Like family?” She asks sadly. Her daughter never mentioned friends before and here she was describing a group of people that were not only friends to her, but family. Trini nods in response. 

“You never mentioned them before, mija.”

“I know.” She admits, pondering her next reply. She couldn’t really share how she met them, the connection they share, and she definitely couldn’t explain how they’d gone from strangers to family in 12 days, but she had to come up with something. “They’re special. I kind of just wanted to keep them to myself for a while. I couldn’t lose them.”

“Trini, I’m sorry.” She reaches across to her daugher to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m so sorry if I made you feel like you had to hide them from us. I’m sorry about everything.”

She can’t hold back the tears this time and she slides off of the stool and into her mother’s arms. “I’m sorry, too, mamí. I know you’re scared of losing me, but I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. I love you so much. You and dad, and the boys, you’re everything to me.”

“Oh, baby, I love you, too.” She says while embracing her daughter’s warmth. Trini pulls back and smiles as she lifts her hand to wipe away her mother’s tears.

“Thank you for listening.” 

“Thank you for sharing.” June pulls her into another hug and kisses her forehead. “After dinner, you’re free to go be with them, but only on one condition.”

Trini can feel her face light up as she turns to face her mom. “Name it.”

“I want to meet them.” There’s a slight smirk on her face and Trini rolls her eyes playfully.

“Mom.” Trini groans.

“I’m serious, Trinity. I want to get to know these friends who are so important to you. If they’re family to you, they’re family to me, too.”

“Fine.” She huffs, still being playful, unable to contain her excitement. 

The front door opens just as June pulls her daughter into another hug and the twins make a beeline for them. Trini looks over her mom’s shoulder to catch her father’s gaze as he walks towards the four of them. “Thank you,” she mouths and beams at him. He nods, smiling back.

There’s still a lot of cracks in the mother/daughter relationship that need to be filled, but this is a start and Trini couldn’t be happier.


End file.
